SOUTHAMPTON.- Following a year's tour across the UK in Leeds, Edinburgh and Norwich, Hayward Touring announced the final leg of the British Art Show 8 (BAS8), on view now in Southampton. This final showing is being presented across Southampton City Art Gallery and John Hansard Gallery, as well as off-site locations across the city, including the historic Bargate monument and the University of Southampton's Highfield campus. The exhibition includes the culmination of a series of artistic commissions that have evolved throughout the duration of the tour, which commenced in October 2015 in Leeds.

Southampton has hosted the British Art Show twice during it's almost 40 year history: first in 1984-1985 for BAS2, and subsequently in 2000 for BAS5, which foregrounded artists now at the centre of the British art scene, including Sarah Lucas, Tracey Emin, Jeremy Deller and Grayson Perry.

BAS8 is the last exhibition in the current John Hansard Galley at the University of Southampton before the gallery relocates to a purpose-built space in the city's new arts complex, Studio 144, close to Southampton City Art Gallery.

The arrival of BAS8 in the city has inspired 'Southampton Fringe', which opened on 8 October and runs concurrently to the exhibition. The fringe features 24 new works by local artists specifically commissioned for the occasion.

New additions by participating artists for BAS8 in Southampton include:

• The fourth work in Jessica Warboys' series of Sea Paintings, created on the coast in Southampton, joining three paintings' from the previous BAS8 venues in a final site specific installation at the Southampton City Art Gallery, ahead of Warboys' solo show at Tate St Ives in 2017

• The culmination of an 18-month project by Eileen Simpson and Ben White – Auditory Learning. The artists have worked with teenagers from a local youth group in Newtown, to vocalise sounds that trigger archival audio fragments and beats from out-of-copyright vinyl records from 1962. The mesmerising film tracking this process will be projected in the Medieval Bargate monument, transformed to evoke a 1960s studio space, with cork floors and acoustic baffling

• A new work for the exhibition by Charlotte Prodger: the artist will present Max the Bull Terrier Trancing, a work from the British Council Collection

• The final iteration of Stuart Whipps' AMR 733V, where the artist has worked throughout the duration of the touring exhibition with former workers of the Longbridge plant in Birmingham. Over the year, they have collaboratively restored different parts of a Mini built in 1979 - a pivotal year in British politics and industry – and a new presentation of the car: the shell and wheels – will be exhibited in Southampton

• New large-scale installations by Benedict Drew and Ciara Phillips, created in response to the new site

BAS provides a vital overview of the most exciting contemporary art produced in this country, and this edition has toured the work of over 40 artists to four cities across the UK, presenting critically acclaimed new commissions launched in earlier exhibition tours.